KeyNöst I, Done 6. Sep 2021

This is a first! This time I wanted to get some more taste into the cheese. I looked up some recipes for the Norwegian «Nøkkelost». It was a point for me in the beginning to try and make that type of cheese. I just love it, but it is an expensive cheese, so part of the whole plan of making cheese is to make the cheeses I can save money making or that is hard to find. |
||
The first thing I did was to measure up the spices (1 ts cloves, 3 ts caraway seed), gently crush them in a mortar, and add them into the kettle first. |
The milk was heated to 30°C |
It went through all the things it should do with resting 45 minutes for curding. |
After cutting the curd, I wondered if all the spices was on top, so before I started stirring in it, I checked just that. It was not a problem, there were spices all the way down. |
I changed the recipe before this cheese from 5 l milk and 6 dl cream to 5 l milk and 3 dl cream. Now it looks as if I've found the right amount, for now it's full but I had no problem closing it and getting it under press. |
Just out of the press and I haven't even removed the cheese cloth around it yet. It did get removed and it was then ready for salting. |
Around the edges on the cheese, where the lid of the press meets the bottom, there tends to be an edge that is thin and sticking out on the sides. I cut away that before I dry the surface |
This is the front of the cheese while drying. I have got a wooden cheese drying mat to put it on this time as I have had a problem with it getting marks from the metal one. No marks anymore! |
If you look at it from the backside, you can see that the spices are OK distributed in the cheese. |
Here it is! Ready for aging. However, when I made the cheese, I thought it would age in the same time as my Nöst normal, but it turns out this cheese needs some more time. A month longer, so this cheese is not ready August 6th but September 6th. |
||
And as always: Have a cheesy day! |